Instant Spell
Instant Spell is a Spell Type, or category of spells, in Master of Magic. It is essentially the group of overland spells that do not require continuous investment of to maintain. In other words, an Instant Spell may leave a lasting impact, but the spell itself disappears completely once cast. While this is akin to the behaviour of Summoning Spells - and is very different from enchantments -, the units that are conjured by spells generally also do have an Upkeep Cost. By definition, all Instant Spells can be cast on the overland map, and the majority of them must be targeted at a specific asset (unit, Town, or something else). A few Instant Spells are targeted at other Wizards, using special interfaces unique to these spells. There are also 3 that may be cast during combat as well, which means that they can also double as Combat Instants. There are a total of 37 Instant Spells in Master of Magic spread across the different Realms. Most of the game's spells, including the fabled , belong to this category, leaving this Realm with just one fewer Instant Spell than or , both of which have 8. The Realm invests heavily into enchantments instead, and has the fewest: only 2. Usage All Instant Spells are designed to be cast on the overland map. However, three of them may also be cast during battles, these are: , , and . As noted below, the first two of these normally target a map tile, and in combat will instead affect the entire battlefield, while the last one works the same way as on the campaign map, targeting a single unit. Instant Spells run the gamut of Casting Costs, with some being incredibly cheap, and others extremely expensive. In all cases however, Instant Spells have absolutely no Upkeep Costs, as the spell itself ceases to exist after it has applied its intended effect. Since the spell dissipates after casting, it cannot be "canceled" voluntarily by the caster, nor can it be dispelled by rival Wizards. Still, this does not mean that the effect cannot be undone - in fact, most Instant Spell effects are reversible in one way or another. They can also be countered as normal as they are being cast. In addition, there are two Instant Spells that do indirectly incur an Upkeep Cost, either by creating ( ), or appropriating ( ), an asset that naturally has one. Furthermore, casting on a unit will remove whatever Upkeep it used to have, and replace it with a pre-set . Targeting Most Instant Spells require a target, upon which they will inflict their effects. Due to the way this group is defined, the variety of target types for Instant Spells is the widest of any spell category. It can be anything from individual units, to rival Wizards, or even the terrain itself. As such, these spells are targeted in a number of different ways. Selecting an invalid target will typically cause an error message, but the game will usually allow the player to choose a different one. Occasionally however, an "invalid" target can be selected, except the spell will have no effect on it, and ends up wasting its entire Casting Cost for nothing. City Spells :Some of the most straightforward Instant Spells to target are those that affect Towns. and are both destructive spells that need to be cast on a rival Settlement. In contrast, , , and may only target the player's own Towns. Finally, selecting a friendly City is also ultimately required upon casting the special . Unit Spells : , , and all require individual units as targets, and are thus a little trickier to cast. That is, if the unit is grouped with other units, the stack needs to be clicked on first to bring up the list view of all the units inside; much like targeting a Unit Enchantment. is also castable in combat though, in which case choosing its target is a matter of a simple click. All three spells can only be used on the caster's own units. Army Spells :These represent a crossover between the Instant Spells that must be cast on a tile (see below), and those that target units. They have to be targeted at a map tile containing at least one unit, but if there are more there, these spells will affect every unit in the target army. and need to be cast on the caster's own armies, while has to target an enemy or rival's stack. Tile Spells :The largest subgroup of Instant Spells in terms of targeting must be cast on a selected tile on the overland map, and will affect every valid target on that tile. Only five of these spells have a casting condition however, meaning that it is entirely possible to cast the rest of them in a way that will have no effect, wasting their entire Casting Cost. : and have the strictest requirements out of these: the former must target a tile with a Mineral resource that it can alter, while the latter can only be cast on a tile with an occupied, but not yet warped, magical Node. The other 3 spells like these that may not target simply any tile are , , and ; mostly because not all terrain types are valid targets for them. : and deserve a special mention here, as they may also be cast during combat to affect the tile that the battle is taking place on. They will then attempt to remove every opposing spell, just like they would if cast overland. However, when cast in combat, this will also include any Combat Enchantments cast by the opponent, in addition to any Unit Curses affecting the caster's own units. On the other hand, both spells can be "mis-targeted", and cast on tiles with no active hostile spells. : , , and are designed to damage or outright kill rival units on the target tile. However, their targeting does not require there to be any such units on the tile. Similarly, is possible to cast even if there are no un-scouted map tiles in its range; and also does not check whether there are any Roads at all in its area of effect. Targeting Wizards :Spells that take another Wizard as a target have a special interface to accomplish this. This is essentially a pop-up window displaying the four other Wizards in gems identical to those visible on the Magic Screen. Just like there, the gemstones for uncontacted Wizards appear grey, and those of defeated players are shattered. As such, spells that are targeted at Wizards can only be cast on those who are currently active in the game, and with whom contact has already been established. The game will even warn the player if they are attempting to start casting one of these spells when there are no valid targets. However, if this is ignored, and there are still no active contacted Wizards when the casting is finished, the spell will fizzle and have no effect. :While the targeting interface is the same for all 4 Instant Spells that target another player, the information they display during the selection can be different. , , and all show the caster's current Visible Relation with the target under their gems. instead displays the spell they are currently casting, in addition to showing the amount of they have already channeled into it, when mousing over one of the valid target Wizards. This is important because this is the amount that the caster needs to spend (immediately) to successfully counter the spell. It is also worth noting that the portait gems can be right-clicked from this interface the same way that they can from the Magic Screen, to view the profile of the depicted Wizard. This may be useful for choosing the best possible target, for instance, in the case of . Global Enchantments : , , and all use the same custom interface designed for selecting a single Global Enchantment as a target. This shows the portrait gems of the other four Wizards, followed by a scrollable list of their active Global Enchantments. Unlike the window used to select target Wizards, this screen does display the colors and portaits of players with whom contact has not yet been established, but only if they have at least one active Global Enchantment. This is understandable considering that the game also shows their name when they successfully complete casting one. However, the gems can not be right-clicked to query the profile traits of Wizards from this interface. Item Crafting :The and spells are both used to create Magical Items. Neither of them are targeted in a conventional way. When selecting these spells for casting, the player is prompted to design the item they wish to craft, before being allowed to start channeling the spell (this also determines its Casting Cost). Upon successful completion, the Items Screen will automatically open, with the newly created item placed on the mouse cursor. It can then either be deposited in the Fortress vault, broken down immediately, or distributed to a Hero. The item is considered to be located at the player's capital for the purposes of transportation costs, meaning that an extra will need to be paid to give it to any Hero who is not garrisoned there. Resurrection : has a unique effect with an interface not shared with any other spell. It needs to target a deceased Hero who has died in the caster's service. The game will warn about casting this spell when there are no dead Heroes, although it does not stop the player from doing so anyway. When the casting is complete, a list of all valid Heroes will appear in a new window, from where the target can be selected. Unfortunately, their statistics can not be viewed before choosing. Automatic Targets :Finally, there are also 3 Instant Spells require no targeting at all. Instead, they automatically seek out all valid targets on the overland map. affects every Normal Unit on both Arcanus and Myrror, while targets each Fantastic Unit. Apart from these, the only other Instant Spell that does not need a target is the . Effects As can be expected from the diverse targeting rules described above, Instant Spells also have widely-varied effects. Unfortunately, they cannot be generalized in any meaningful way apart from the targets they take. Instead, the exact effects of each Instant Spell are explained in great detail within their articles on this wiki, and both the in-game help and the table below contain a brief summary of these effects. List of Instant Spells The following list details all 37 Instant Spells available in the game. Category:Spell Types Category:Instant Spells